I Don't Want to Work Hard Anymore

In his previous life, when Gu Baixian was crown prince, he was deposed three times and reinstated twice.

The last time, the emperor was gravely ill and preparing an edict to depose him and make his beloved Fifth Imperial Brother the crown prince. Before the edict was finished, Gu Baixian served the emperor a cup of poisoned wine. "I respectfully see Father Emperor off to his death."

Gu Baixian inherited the throne by right.

But his path to the throne was anything but peaceful.

First, the ministers suspected that the late emperor's death had been suspicious. Then they brought out an edict supposedly naming the Fifth Imperial Prince as crown prince.

The moment the forged edict was produced, Gu Baixian knew.

He was guilty.

But the so-called suspicions were just accusations made to frame him.

Gu Baixian wasn't surprised.

For a long time, the powerful officials and noble heirs at court had been infatuated with the Fifth Imperial Prince, who was loved by everyone.

He was their white moonlight. They feared Gu Baixian would kill him once he ascended the throne, so they were willing to do anything to install him as emperor.

The ministers opposed Gu Baixian, swearing to support the Fifth Imperial Prince to the death, but Gu Baixian still got his wish.

Someone helped him.

The price was that on the night of his enthronement, his ornate, luxurious imperial robes were ripped off and thrown beneath the bed. The young general who had bathed the capital in blood and escorted Gu Baixian to the throne trapped him on the imperial bed in a treasonous act, keeping him there until dawn.

Only then did Gu Baixian realize he had gotten involved with a madman.

Huo Buchen's ambitions were no smaller than his own.

Gu Baixian spent two years as a puppet emperor.

He fought the ministers, Huo Buchen, who had become regent, and his Fifth Imperial Brother, who had fled to a neighboring country and remained beloved by everyone there.

In the end, he fell ill. Only when he was on the brink of death did he learn that he was the villain in a book.

In the story, the protagonist was his universally adored Fifth Imperial Brother, Gu Yunxi, and Gu Baixian was the evil older brother.

He was nothing but a stepping stone for the protagonist chosen by fate.

At the end of the book, less than seven days after Gu Baixian's death, Gu Yunxi returned to the dynasty and ascended the throne with the ministers' support. The one who escorted him home was none other than Huo Buchen's personal guard.

When Gu Baixian was young, his classmates, close childhood friends, and every influential young noble in the capital had liked his imperial brother. The only one who hadn't was Huo Buchen, the son of the general's household.

But no one knew that Huo Buchen had hidden his feelings the deepest.

Gu Baixian spat out a mouthful of blood. Before he died, he grabbed Huo Buchen by the lapels and spoke his final words.

"Bury me on Tianshan Ridge."

After he spoke, he saw Huo Buchen's bloodshot eyes fly wide open.

The usually aloof, cold regent's handsome face twisted into a savage grimace. He glared at Gu Baixian with boundless hatred, as if he wanted to strangle him on the spot.

Tianshan Ridge was where the Heir of Jingxuan was buried.

When Gu Baixian was young, he had called him "Brother Jingxuan" countless times. Later, he discovered that Brother Jingxuan had fallen for Gu Yunxi, too.

So Gu Baixian had ordered his death.

Gu Baixian had spent most of his life driven mad by obsession. At last, he closed his eyes amid Huo Buchen's anguished roars.

Many people said Gu Yunxi resembled him somewhat.

Huo Buchen had treated him as a substitute, and it so happened that Gu Baixian didn't like him either.

*

Gu Baixian thought he was headed for hell, but when he opened his eyes, he was back at the time of his first deposition.

The crown prince had been deposed, and everyone was waiting for Gu Baixian to go mad.

But the spies of every faction reported something quite different: after receiving the edict, the deposed crown prince had smiled so broadly for three days and three nights that his mouth wouldn't close.

On the fourth day, he packed his belongings and set off on a journey.

"...What? He just left?"

Gu Baixian, reborn: Whoever wants to fight can fight.

He was tired. He didn't want to be anyone's stepping stone anymore.

He paid no attention to the uproar his departure caused in the capital.

Gu Baixian intended to get away from everything, but just after leaving the capital, he saw a young slave being whipped and kicked by the roadside.

Gu Baixian took a closer look.

Well, wasn't that his great general, the future regent?

So this was how pathetic he looked before he was found and brought back to the general's household.

Gu Baixian watched for a long while, then blended into the crowd and kicked Huo Buchen, too.

It didn't make him feel any better.

"I'll buy him." Then I can keep going when I get him home.

Huo Buchen looked up.

At that moment, he noticed that the extraordinarily beautiful and richly dressed young lord was smiling at him more sweetly than arsenic.

*Rebirth, and a sweet romance.

*There were misunderstandings in the previous life. The top loved the bottom from beginning to end. One-on-one, happy ending.

*Low-magic world, set in a dynasty with supernatural and paranormal elements.

Message: Let go of your obsessions, and things may fall into place when you least expect it.